All 3D models with links span 3 words; the first leading to MakerWorld, the second leading to Printables, and the 3rd leading to Thingiverse.
Intro
Man, this month felt like it lasted quite the while, if I’m being perfectly honest. Usually I say they fly by, but I think due to how much my life has kind of shifted gears recently, I feel like I had to go through a long journey to get here.
First, the school year has started back up here in Japan, so I’m going through the motions of introducing myself to new teachers, new students, giving the same presentation 37 times at all 9 different schools I teach at…and I still haven’t been to them all yet!
Second–and more important–I’ve completely restructured how I go about my day-to-day life. I wrote a whole manifesto about it, but the long and short of it is that due to my contract most likely ending in the summer of next year, I’ve decided to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test in December to get certified and therefore more able to enter the workforce here. As that is something that directly affects my future livelihood and 3D printing things is a hobby, that has taken exclusive precedence over 3D printing. So while I still will be doing 3D printing stuff, just know that if my goals here are a bit lower than usual or my uploads are a bit less frequent than usual…that’s why.
On another note, I’m going to the Japan RepRap Festival at the end of this month, so the next roadmap will be a little late! I figure rather than writing my next roadmap early and just uploading it on the first, It’d be better to write it after JRRF so I can think about the next month with what I saw at JRRF in mind.
I’ll be working there as a translator, so keep an eye out for me! Although, to be honest, I have no idea what that will entail; I should really send a follow up email to request more information. I’d like to go reporter mode and make some videos about the event in its entirety as well as the exhibitors there and their products, but that will depend on what my role will be and what free time I have. Should probably follow up on that…
But enough waffling around, I’ve gotta report on what I got done last month!
What I got done last month
Pokemon TCG Pocket
Huzzah! I have finally cracked the code to consistent, detailed effect prints! While I did slow down the speeds a bit, I changed the layer size from 0.08mm to 0.14–that’s it. It prints out the first layer at 0.1mm thickness, and the rest a bit thicker at 0.14. I’m not sure exactly why it works, but if I had to guess, it’s something to do with the fact that the nozzle has to do fewer passes, and therefore drags on the part less, and each layer is thicker and therefore less prone to warping. There’s potential to be able to still get away with higher speeds, but to be perfectly honest, I really don’t want to spend the time experimenting. Either way, I only figured this out recently, so I haven’t had time to fully catch up. I’ve still got a few of the older coins to print out, but the four I did manage to do are a Mega Gardevoir coin and a Toxtricity coin, while a Mimikyu coin, an Iono coin, and a Pokemon 30th Celebration coin got uploaded slightly after April ended. Hence, why this roadmap is a bit late!
Oh, and this is a bit embarrassing to admit, but… I stumbled across the Pikachu Ver. 2 coin in my “to upload” folder, assumed I forgot to move it to the “Uploaded” folder, but… nope.
There are quite a few coins left undone, though, so I’ll be printing them whenever I’m not printing any other project. They are, in order that I plan to release them:
Sprigatito, Arven, Morpeko, Shiny Mega Gengar, Mega Kangaskhan, Zoroark, Sobble, Mega Lucario. We’re so back! Looking forward to being caught up.
Project Kurt
I got news! But it’s not very good. Finally reached out again to my editor, and he officially said he would not have any time to continue editing them going forward. Tried reaching out to my brother and making a deal with him (he hates recording and likes editing, and I’m the opposite), but he also doesn’t have time. So who knows how the heck it’s gonna shake out going forward; I’ll probably just have to figure out a steady pace I want to edit them at. Given that paying an editor a fair wage for videos that return $0 is kinda off the table… meh. We’ll see how it goes.
April’s Deeds
Main Goal
Two main Goals: Make my MakerChip, and revamp my Website in preparation for JRRF! Welp, here’s my MakerChip:
Does it look like a cross-section of a pumpkin? Maybe? That’s what I was going for.
And if you want to see how my website turned out, scan that QR code! Or of course, just visit carlthepumpkinman.com.
I did revamp it to have all my socials and stuff, but there’s a bit more I want to do before JRRF. I’ll talk about that in this month’s goals, however.
As a side note, in making my Chip, I also made a carrying case that can hold a whopping 154 Chips! It was designed to balance both storage capacity and searchability; the MakerChips are densely packed while also having enough space around them to quickly locate Chips at a glance. It’s also got removable holders and a fold-up print-in-place carrying handle! If you want more info, you can look at the photos below or download it here!
Oh, and if you could go onto the JRRF site and vote for it to win the contest, that’d be great! I honestly don’t know what winning gets me, but I sure do wanna win!
Stretch Goal
Make that King Slime, baby! And make it I did. There’s not much else to say; I found the original model online, adapted it into both an AMS and single-extruder version, and voila! Here you go!
Fun fact, it got featured on the front page of Thingiverse for like a day.
If you’d like to see a bunch of different Dragon Quest Slimes, I made Collections of them on each of the sites I use, so feel free to take a look!
Impossigoal
Yes, it remained forever out of reach. Should I even mention it in the recap if I didn’t reach it? Might just stop next month; who knows!
May We Continue?
Geddit? May? Because it’s the month of–
Main Goal
Anyway, the Pumpkin Jam #03 is slated for the weekend of June 13th! If you don’t know what it is, it’s basically a fun little event where people sign up, and then when it starts everyone receives an email detailing a Theme, and they have 48 hours to design, print, and upload a model that fits that Theme. I print all of them out, give feedback to everyone, and crown one the winner!
This time around, we as of yet have no prizes involved, but if someone wanted to sponsor one…
You can find out more and sign up here.
The astute of you may have noticed that that will be after JRRF, and that was intentional! I want to try to get JRRF attendees to participate, so my Main Goal will be to finish up the final preparations for the Jam and also translate everything relevant into Japanese, so that Japanese users can also participate. This also means doing even more edits to the site, writing the Theme in Japanese and recording/translating the Theme video as well…this is gonna be a lot. But I can do it!
Stretch Goal
This is a Jumbo Coin Case made for holding Pokemon Coins, and it’s what I remixed to make the aforementioned MakerChip case.
If I can do it in time, I plan on designing a bunch of remixes that have designs that correspond to all 28 Poke Balls that are usable in the main series of games. On MakerWorld, however, if you release a print profile of something, you have to actually print it out and show that the print profiles work. I, of course, don’t have the resources to print all 28 of them, so I thought it would be fun to just upload all the print profiles and let you guys upload them and reap the benefits from it!
I’ll probably make a more in-depth post about it on MakerWorld itself, but basically, if you want to print one I didn’t print, you can download the 3mf, print it as is, and reupload it as a print profile. You get all the points that that print profile accrues if other people want to print it.
Impossigoal
I probably won’t get to this this time around but I swear on all things holy I’m gonna make one of those suspended-string print things one of these days. It’ll happen. Probably.
Conclusion
That’s it for this time, folks! Japanese studies have been great so far; I recently took an official JLPT N2 practice exam and passed, so I’m feeling good! It’s looking like I might be able to get N1 in December at this rate, so wish me luck!
See you next time! And as always, enjoy my Bucket List:
Bucket List
This is just every idea from the last time put here again for recordkeeping. I’ll probably delete some if I have zero interest in doing them, but feel free to skim through this and see if anything catches your fancy. So here they are!
Testing actual VG Boomerangs
Boomerangs have always interested me–I mean, how cool is a piece of wood with 0 moving parts that returns on its own after you throw it? I’m interested in designing a bunch of Boomerangs from Video Games (Specifically from the Zelda Series) and testing out how well they actually would fly if you threw them irl, if at all. Lemme know if you know of any games that have boomerangs in them.
3D Modeling Poseable Models in Blender
I know Blender is more about animations and stuff, but I currently almost exclusively use it for importing one kind of filetype, and then exporting it as another. Since it certainly seems to be a powerful tool for handling meshes and stuff, I figure it’d be good to learn more about how it works, and to try and model some basic poseable figures in there. The prefecture I live in, Kagoshima, has a group of mascots that are all pigs–I think it’d be cool to create a base form for them, add bones onto it, pose it like they do in their promotional images, and then add their little accessories to make a cute little figurine set.
Gameripping and Crowdfunding
I’ve used The Models Resource to find models as reference material many times before, so I was considering repaying the favor and getting some models to add. The Magical Sword from Hyrule Warriors has always been in the back of my mind to make, but there are a couple problems.
No one ripped the sheath from the game. Both the sword and shield are there, but no sheath to put the blade in.
It would take a lot of filament. More than would be sustainable for a hobbyist such as myself.
For this challenge, I’d like to see if I can’t learn how to rip the model, so I can try and upload it myself. And to get the filament, I want to try out Maker World’s crowdfunding feature to see if I can’t scrape together enough to get the filament to properly test it and then print it out. It’s a pretty complicated model, as you can see here. It’d be a big undertaking by itself in order to try and adapt it.
Making Practical Mechanisms
So I have no idea what direction this would go, but have you ever worn a hard hat? You put it on, and there’s a knob in the back that tightens it down so it doesn’t fall off your noggin. I want to try making a headband that works like that, but has a mechanism in the front that lets you easily attach and detach a mask. How would that work out? Is PLA even bendy enough to make a reliable headband? I don’t know, but I found the patent for the ratchet, so…
Making More Rubber Band Hinges
Y’all remember Bakugan? I do. Really cool marble-like toys with a hidden magnet in ‘em which, when passed over a metal card, triggered the magnet which unlatched a bunch of springed hinges, transforming it into a little figure. Really crappy card game, super interesting concept. I wanna see if I can make one using rubber bands to power the hinges, similar to how my Poke Ball works.
Working with TPU
Fun fact: I’ve never printed in TPU. Ever. Sounds fun though. I’ve seen people make squeaky rubber duckies with TPU, and I want to try to do that myself. Except instead of a Duck, I want to make a Pig Ball, from the obscure PlayStation game Tomba! 2. This is the highest resolution photo I could find of it via a quick google search, which should tell you how rare it is.
What are those Suspended String Thingies Called?
I’ve seen some pretty cool models like the one in this image here. I have no clue (ok I have some clue) how they work, but I want to try one! I’m a fan of Naruto, and for some reason these prints remind me of a Sharingan floating in a tank. I’d like to make one, and swap out the design for every one seen so far in the series. Shouldn’t be that hard, right?
Trying out Some Cosplay
Really small goal, but I want to try and make Zero’s Buster from Mega Man X3. I’ve got an idea to try and use straps that might make it relatively ergonomic and solid, but I also want to think of a way to make it easy to take on and off.
Electronics and API, maybe?
A while back I made a video (or 2… or 3…) in which I attempted to make disco lights for my twitch stream. I kinda succeeded, but the end product was really finicky, unreliable, and hard to set up. Basically, the gist of the thing was that I wanted to make a spinning ball with holes in it that projected shapes from an internal light onto my walls, in order to spice up my twitch stream. I was toying around with trying to make one from the maker’s supply, and if that worked out, I want to try and sync it up with my twitch stream so that it changes color if I get a follow, raid, sub, or something like that. That’d be gnarly. I’ve had a couple people tentatively offer to help, and I feel bad that I haven’t followed through…
The old one had (technically) remote control, RGB capability, and variable spinning speed somehow, but it’d take a lot of learning to figure out how to do it effectively and reliably.